Jonathan Farrow is a character in DEXTER. He was a photographer and a suspected serial killer who appeared in the Season 4 episode "Slack Tide".

History

Farrow was arrested on suspicion of rape in New York in 2002. The charges were ultimately dropped (according to the lead investigator of the case, the victim was most likely paid off). His pictures were typically graphic, bordering on grotesque (among the ones seen was a woman eating her own intestines like noodles using chopsticks) and sometimes featured women who had really been abused by him.

Farrow first appears on Dexter's radar when the severed arm of one of his models,Estrella Caraza, was found inside of an alligator. When he is questioned, he flirts with/threatens Debra, causing Dexter to make him a higher priority than Arthur "Trinity" Mitchell. He later goes to Farrow's studio to check for blood and found evidence that Caraza had been beaten there. Dexter then plans to snatch Farrow from a nightclub, but has to change his plan when Quinn appears there. Instead, Dexter abducts Farrow from his home, and garrots him to make him unconscious and takes him to his studio.

Farrow insists that he hadn't killed anyone and that he beat the women he photographed to create a kind of artistic contrast between beauty and the ugliness in the world. Despite this, Dexter kills him using a meat cleaver, dismembers him, and dumps his remains into the sea. The next day, however, Angel arrests Farrow's assistant, Timothy Brand, for the murder of Caraza on air-tight evidence such as surveillance photos and DNA evidence. In spite of Farrow's despicable personality, Dexter feels remorse for killing him as Farrow didn't meet the code.

Trivia

If we look closer at Farrow's case it is still a question whether he was aware of Brand's killing spree or not. It is possible that he particiapted in rape/abuse like Alex Tilden (who also was only accomplice to murder and rapist, but never the less was killed under Dexter's supervision with no remorse).

He is the second character to be killed out of the Code while being a rapist and a photographer, the first one being Nathan Marten. Both of them are also similar to a character from the novel Dearly Devoted Dexter, Steve Reiker (also a photographer and a rapist) but Farrow seems to be more directly based on Reiker.

Apart of Reiker Farrow is also very similar to Novel character Alex Doncevic: both of them were alleged murderers who turned out to be innocent, though their personality and art were very disturbing and psychotic. Both also had their lawyers to get them free of charges and both were framed by their associates. It should be noted, though, that despite Farrow seems to be at least partially based on Doncevic the gap between novel and filming of Season 4 is to small to say for sure.